Adrian Selin, Staraia Ladoga Museum, Russia[1]

Staraia Ladoga: A Medieval Russian Town in a Post-Soviet Context

Located 120 km from St. Petersburg, StaraiaLadoga is an important center of architectural and archaeological monuments which have attracted the serious attention of scholars for more than one hundred and fifty years.Drawn initially to Ladogas twelfth-century architecture, Russian researchers also began serious study of the towns fortress in the mid-nineteenth century.In 1909, archaeologists began excavating LadogasZemlianoegorodishche (earthen hill-fort), the archaeological and architectural site that is now known to contain occupation layers dating to from the eighth to the tenth centuries.The hill-forts waterlogged anaerobic soil had provided optimum conditions for the preservation of organic materials and the remains of wooden buildings.A detailed and ongoing study of the hill-fort has revealed a complex settlement which emerged in the lower VolkhovRiver several decades prior to the beginning of the Viking Age on the periphery of the Scandinavian world.Interest in Ladoga has steadily increased among both Russian and western scholars, especially after 1991 in large part due to the yearly exactions conducted by the StaraiaLadoga expeditions of the Institute of History of Material Culture (IIMK).[2]Professor AnatoliiKirpichnikov has been instrumental in continuing this work. Thanks to his very intensive activities in 1990s the excavations did not stop. The post-1991 period in Ladoga, both in the sphere of archaeology and monument preservation, has encountered certain unique circumstances, which in many ways are characteristic of Russia as a whole.
The StaraiaLadogaMuseum was first established in 1984, the primary function of which is the preservation of the towns historical monuments.The museums authority concerning the protection of the monuments, despite the strengthening of such rights in the late 1990s, was limited to an advisory role in the construction of new buildings in Ladoga in order to protect sites of historical importance.The government body in charge of the preservation of historical sites for the Leningrad region,[3]under whose jurisdiction Ladoga falls, is the Department for the Preservation of Monuments of the government of the Leningrad oblast.[4] In reality, however, this organization only has the authority to grant or decline permission for construction activities.Actual control over archaeological and architectural monuments lies beyond the control of oblast authorities because the appropriate specialists do not work in provincial or municipal institutions.

The only institution in Russia that has the authority to grant official sanction for archaeological fieldwork (excluding the discovery of new sites by archaeological reconnaissance) is the Institute of Archaeology, functioning under the auspices of the Russian Academy of Sciences (hereafter IA RAN) or, more precisely, its subdivision, the Section for Field Research (hereafter OPI).Until very recently, the OPIs director had been ValentinSedov, who passed away in the Fall, 2004.Located in Moscow under the administration of a research organization, OPI grants permission to conduct excavations (known as an open list) for all of Russia.Because of the specifics nature of this system, only individual archaeologists, and not archaeological organizations, receive these grants.[5]Thus, museum institutions such as StaraiaLadogas are denied the opportunity to pursue legal action against unauthorized construction projects or other invasive earthwork in the town (both are unfortunately common activities in todays Russia).The Department for the Preservation of Monuments learns of these infractions only after they have been perpetrated, and OPI IA RAN may grant permission for projects only after three to four weeks after the decision to carry them out has been made (due to the functioning of Russias postal system).

The inability of the bureaucracy to manage these problems has had direct results on the archaeological study of StaraiaLadoga during the last fifteen years.The decade of the 1970s was a productive one for StaraiaLadogas archaeology.In addition to Zemliannoegorodishche, excavations were conducted at the Varangian Street, the burial fields of Plakun and Pobedishche, and the MalyshevHill .As research activities expanded during this period, however, the organization and character of Ladogas archaeology became more complicated.Since 1985, all work of the expedition team headed by Professor Kirpichnikov has been focused on the Zamliannoegorodishche.There is no construction work taking place both within the territory of the gorodishche and that legally connected with the museum.With rare exceptions, archaeological excavations are not taken up in other areas of the town, although it is these that cultural layers are most vulnerable to destruction by invasive non-archaeological digging.
New electric station built in 2004-2005 in center of Staraya Ladoga after the only one held protectoral archaeological excavation(SUmmer, 2005) (organizers: Staraya Ladoga Museum, guided by Aleksandr Volkovitskij and Adrian Selin).

During the1981-1983 excavations, archaeologists wooden structures in the gorodishches lowest layers, one of which was dendrochronologically dated to 753/54.[6]In the late 1980s, a sign with the numbers 753 was erected in the towns center, signifying the year when the oldest piece of wood found to date was cut.The story did not end here, however, with the date acquiring special significance in 2003.Responding to the proposal of Professor Kirpichnikov and DmitriiMachhinskii, and hoping to distract the public from political rivalries and infighting that had been taking place on the regional level of the Russian Federation, the head of the Leningrad oblast, V. P. Serdiukov, supported efforts to declare 2003 as the year ofStaraiaLadogas jubilee, which received recognition by Presidential office of the Russian Federation.[7]
The jubilee produced mixed results for Ladoga.On the one hand, the activities associated with the celebration brought archaeology to the attention of Russian authorities.In 2003 and 2004, Vladimir Putin took part (albeit briefly) in Professor Kirpichnikovs excavations, which attracted enormous attention from the regional press.Additionally, an unprecedented number of tourist groups from Saint Petersburg, Moscow and neighboring regions visited StaraiaLadoga.In the negative column, the jubilee celebrations required regional and municipal powers to build a support infrastructure.The first steps in this process saw the demolition by StaraiaLadogas municipal authorities of three wooden merchants houses on the Varangian Street.
Merchant Rykov's House on Varyazhskaja str. (late 19th c.)destroyed in May, 2003 by the order of Gouvernor Serdjukov and Staraya Ladoga Mayor Nina Ermak
In their place, what had been a picturesque historical scene now appeared unsightly buildings.
Excavator making trench in the center of Staraya Ladoga for new shop. June, 2004
The StaraiaLadoga jubilee itself became a living commercial used by regional and federal officials to promote the Leningrad regions economy, who had hoped to capitalize on being the home region to Russias First Capital.The First Capital concept is not taken seriously by scholars, developed instead as a political tool by the jubilee organizers.Two of the organizers (better: authors or/and propagandists of the idea), Professor Kirpichnikov and DmitriiMachinskii, have gradually distanced themselves from claims that Ladoga was a capital city of Rus, which is probably the only point of accord between them.During the Russian Muscovite and Imperial periods (16th-19th centuries), several Orthodox monasteries were established in StaraiaLadoga.Recently, the Russian Orthodox Church has moved to exert the authority it enjoyed in StaraiaLadoga prior to 1917, asking for the return of properties that it was stripped of by the soviets.For example, the buildings of the Nikolskii monastery and Uspenskii convent, which had had operated as such up to 1920, have suffered from serious neglect in recent years.The Orthodox Church, which does not have to pay taxes, is making claims to a large amount of real estate, but it unfortunately hardly has the resources to restore or render them useable.With the support of regional authorities, both the Nikolskii monastery and Uspenskii convent, including churches on these properties that date to the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, have been transferred to the Church.Since the transfer, there have been no significant developments in restoring the property or building religious communities there.And even more significantly, Church authorities have failed to act on any of the museum or states recommendation for preserving the medieval architectural monuments.
trench made in 19th-century park in Staraya Ladoga. Winter 2005
The jubilee has also left its imprint on Ladogas archaeological research.In June, 2003, a conference was held in the town under the title Ladoga and the Source of Russian Statehood and Culture.[8]The conference title is a true reflection of scientific research.The theme of the foundation and development of old Russian statehood, which contemporary Russian ideologues associate with the modern equivalent, was echoed in all of the papers presented at the conference.No less of a stimulus to archaeological research was an exhibit jointly organized by the State Hermitage and StaraiaLadoga museums StaraiaLadoga Russias First Capital, presented both at the Hermitage (Saint Petersburg) and the State History Museum (Moscow) in 2003.[9]Whereas the conference papers were of an exclusively scholarly nature, the Hermitage exhibit was, though produced by researchers, largely prepared for the general public.The exhibits catalog provides a good survey of recent research.In addition to an article by Professor Kirpichnikov, which described in sweeping terms the work of theStaraiaLadoga excavations in recent years,[10] there are articles by DmitriiMachinskii,[11]SergeiKuzmin, Alexander Volkovitskii[12] and KirillMikhailov,[13] among others.And this provides an appropriate segue to a discussion of what exactly some of this new research entails.

AnatoliiKirpichnikov has been the sole director of archaeological research in StaraiaLadoga since 1985, in effect monopolizing all resulting information from the excavations.The findings of these excavations are rarely published, especially in a systematic manner.[14]In the context of these excavations, Kirpichnikov has devoted particular attention to single finds that are conducive to quick, and oftentimes premature interpretations of Ladogas trading ties with Scandinavia and the Arab world, using, for example, amber fragments to construct theories of advanced production.He devotes little attention to StaraiaLadogas wooden buildings, the preservation of which is unmatched for sites dating from the eighth through the tenth centuries.Wooden constructions of 9th c. on Zemlyanoe Gorodische site.Excavations by Kirpichnikov, July-August, 2004 Vladimir Kil'djushevskij and Aleksandr Volkovitskij (on the picture)His lack of analytical depth is further demonstrated by his assumption that archaeological artifacts are sound indicators of the users ethnic affiliation.Another important and often repeated hypothesis of Kirpichnikov is his dating of Ladogas stone fortress to the late ninth century, during the reign of Prince Oleg.[15]At the present time, none of Kirpichnikovs Russian colleagues acceptthis theory, but it nevertheless remains the accepted date in pseudo-scientific literature, especially in publications printed by the regional press Vesti.

DmitriiMachinskii is the representative of another trend in current research on StaraiaLadoga.His daughter, the young archaeologist Anna Machinskii, died suddenly in 1994 and, beginning in December 1995, there has been an annual reading of papers in her memory at StaraiaLadoga.The meeting attracts scholars of a wide range of disciplines, professional title and learning and, to date, the papers from seven meetings have appeared in print.For example, it was in one of these volumes that an article dedicated to a discussion of the piece of wood originating from an eighth-century Ladoga building, dating to 753,[16] along with the reaction of a leader of a Moscow research institution to the then proposed StaraiaLadoga jubilee.[17]Machinskiis theory that StaraiaLadoga was a capital city as early as the ninth century was not met with widespread acceptance due to his use of certain sources of questionable credibility, such as the Ioakimovskaialetopis, known to historians solely due to its use by V.N. Tatishchev in the mid-eighteenth century, [18]and PodrobneishuiuistoiiugosudareiRossiiskikh, which was most likely created in the seventeenth century an published a century later by Nikolai Novikov. [19]

The third prominent scholar in the study of early Ladoga in recent years is EvgeniiRiabinin, the archaeologist who began a series of masterful excavations of the Zemliannoegorodishche in the 1970s.[20]It was Riabinin as well who first introduced dendrochronological dating to the archaeology of StaraiaLadoga and, it is thanks to his excavations that we now have a detailed dendrochronological chronology for Ladoga.From 1985, however, Riabinin was forced to abandon his work in Ladoga and resume his study of the Vodskaia lands of Velikii Novgorod from the eleventh through the fifteenth centuries.In 1997, Riabinin continued the work started by previous researchers in StaraiaLadogas environs.Specifically in this year he began excavating the gorodishche at LiubshaRiver, which empties into the right bank of the Volkhov 3 kilometers to the north of the StaraiaLadoga fortress.Supposedly these excavations have revealed startling new results.In both popular articles and private conversation, Riabinin asserts that he has unearthed a seventh-century stone fortress, which arose on the site of a Finnic fishing settlement.To date, however, an interested reader only has access to preliminary interpretations about these excavations.[21]Additionally, one can also read about several finds from Liubshe in the commemorativeprepared for Ladogas jubilee celebrations. [22]Thus, Riabinins bold proposition that the fortified settlement in the Lower Volkhov, ostensibly pre-dating StaraiaLadogas oldest settlement layers in the mid-eighth century, is unfortunately not sufficiently substantiated in publication form.

SergeiKuzmin, another current Ladoga scholar, worked at RiabininsLadoga excavations in the early 1980s.Kuzmin has never had the opportunity to lead an excavation in Ladoga, but he nevertheless has made a significant contribution by showing the distribution of finds from the Zemlianoegorodishches eighth through tenth-century cultural-settlement horizons and separating the building layers unearthed during several field seasons.[23]According to Kuzmin,Ladoga began as a small settlement founded by colonists from Northern Europe, and, as early as the 760s, the settlement was abandoned.Settlement was resumed during the pre-840 period, but disrupted once again by fires that occurred between 863 and the 870s.During the intervening period between the fires, the residents constructed a large house with associated small log cabins stone hearths in the corner.This is but one example of Kuzmins chronologically articulated study of Ladogas building phases, which he pursues up to late tenth early eleventh centuries.[24]

Kuzmins interests extend to later periods of Ladogas history as well.A point of contention in Ladogas building history involves the time when defensive earthworks were raised over Ladogas oldest settlement area.In partnership with AleksanderVolkovitskii, Kuzmin has used archaeological data to show in a convincing manner that the earthworks were built in the beginning of the seventeenth century.The report preserved in the Razriadnyeknigi that mentions the construction of a town (stroitelstvogoroda) in 1585 following the Livonian War was referring not o the Zamliannoegorodishche, but to the raising of the stone fortress.[25]Professor Kirpichnikov has raised strong objections to this theory, asserting that StaraiaLadogas stone fortress, intended for artillerycombat, was built in the early Muscovite period during the end of the fifteenth century.

Today, StaraiaLadoga is the subject of both scholarly and pseudo-scholarly debate.Oftentimes the motives and explanata of many of these discussions are driven by the personalities of the researchers, and current political trends in Russia.Furthermore, two interrelated factors need to be kept in mind.First, the theme Ladoga the First Capital of Rus, which was the conception by scholars, is now being exploited by regional and municipal authorities, who lack a necessary understanding of its complexities and implications.At the same time, it is these same local political authorities that, as a rule, are the culprits in the destruction of StaraiaLadogas archaeological cultural layers, its more important historical legacy.


[1] English translation by Heidi Sherman.
[2] Known formerly as the Leningrad section of the Institute of Archaeology (pre-1991). 
[3] The Leningrad oblast is one of 89 territorial units of the Russian Federation.The title is a holdover from the Soviet period, when Saint Petersburg was officially known as Leningrad (1924-1991) It is important to note, however, that the city of Saint Petersburg does not fall under the Leningrad oblast authorities, maintaining instead its own administration equal to that of the oblast administration.
[4] The area encompassed by Leningrad oblast is 83,908 square km.All governing institutions of the oblast are located in Saint Petersburg.From the moment of its foundation, the Department for the Preservation of Monuments did not have access to transportation to visit the sites for which it was responsible.
[5] The system developed in the nineteenth century, when the Imperial Archaeological Commission, also a state institution, granted open lists.
[6] N.B. Chernykh, DendrochronologiiadrevneishikhgorizontovStaroiLadogi (pomaterialamraskopkiZemlianogogorodishche), SrednevekovaiaLadoga. Novyearkheologicheskieotkrytiia I issledovaniia, (Leningrad: 1985), p. 79.
[7] Efforts to launch a jubilee celebration were part of a larger trend, with jubilees being prepared concurrently for Saint Petersburg (300th), Pskov (1,100th), and the altogether mythical foundation of Kazan (1,000th).
[8]Ladoga i istoki Rossiiskoi gosudarstvennosti i kultury. Materialymezhdunarodnoinauchno-prakticheskoikonferentsy (St. Petersburg: Vesti, 2003). 
[9]Staraia Ladoga drevniaia stolitsa Rusi. Katalog vystavki (St. Petersburg: Izd. Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha, 2003).
[10] A.N. Kirpichnikov, Drevnosti Staroi Ladogi v issledovanniiakh Staroladozhskoi arkheologichsekoi ekspeditsii IIMK RAN, Staraia Ladoga drevniaia stolitsa Rusi. Katalog vystavki (St. Petersburg: Izd. Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha, 2003), pp. 36-50.
[11] D.A. Machinskii, Ladoga drevneishaia stolitsa Rusi i eye vorota v Evropu, Staraia Ladoga drevniaia stolitsa Rusi. Katalog vystavki (St. Petersburg: Izd. Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha, 2003), pp 11-35
[12] A.I. Volkovitskii, B.S. Korotkevich, S.L. Kuzmin, Materialnaia kultura drevnei Ladogi, Staraia Ladoga drevniaia stolitsa Rusi. Katalog vystavki (St. Petersburg: Izd. Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha, 2003), pp. 133-141.
[13] Kirill Mikhailov, Kurgannye mogilniki Staroi Ladogi, Staraia Ladoga drevniaia stolitsa Rusi. Katalog vystavki (St. Petersburg: Izd. Gosudarstvennogo Ermitazha, 2003), pp. 153-57.
[14] In recent years the following reports have appeared in print: A.N. Kirpichnikov, V.A. Nazarenko, Dereviannye sooruzheniia Staroi Ladogi po raskopkam 1984-1991 gg., Drevnosti Povolkhovia (St. Petersburg: 1997), pp. 63-82; A.N. Kirpichnikov, P.E. Sorokin, Arkheologicheskie raskopki v Staroi Ladoge v 2000 g., Migratsii i osedlost ot Dunaia do Ladogi v pervom tysiacheletii khristiansko iery. Piatye chteniia pamiati Anny Machinskoi. Materialy k chteniiam (St. Petersburg: 2001), pp. 114-119; A.N. Kirpichnikov, P.E. Sorokin, Issledovaniia Staroladozhskogo Zemlianogo gorodishcha v 2000 g., Ladoga i eye sosedi v epokhu srednevekovia (St. Petersburg: 2002), pp. 151-158; A.N. Kirpichnikov, Proizvodstvennyi kompleks IX v. Iz raskopok v Staroi Ladogi, Ladoga i eye sosedi v epokhu srednevekovia (St. Petersburg: 2002), pp. 227-250.
[15] A.N. Kirpichnikov, B.D. Sarabianov, Staraia Ladoga. Drevniaia stolitsa Rusi (St. Petersburg: Slaviia, 2003), p. 81.
[16] Drawn from the conclusions of the dendrochronological research of StaraiaLadogas medieval buildings.See Appendix 2 of DmitriiMachinskiis article, Pochemyi v kakomsmysleLadogusleduetschitat pervoistolitseiRusi, LadogaiSevernaiaEvraziaotBaikala do La-Mansh.Sviazuiushchieputiiorganizuiushchietsentry. 6 chteniiapamiatiAnnyMachinskoi (St. Petersburg: SB statei, 2002), pp. 37-38.
[17] B.A. Kuchkin, O 1250-letnem iubilee g. StaraiaLadoga, Appendix to Machinskii, Pochemyi v kakomsmysle, LadogaiSevernaiaEvraziaotBaikala do La-Mansha.Sviazuiushchieputiiorganizuiushchietsentry. 6 chteniiapamiatiAnnyMachinskoi (St. Petersburg: SB statei, 2002), pp. 36-37.
[18]Machinskii, Pochemyi v kakomsmysle, pp. 5-35.
[19] D.A. Machinskii, Vnov otkrytieistochnikipoistoriiRusi IX-XII vv., Ladoga  pervaiastolitsaRusi. 1250 let nepreryvnoizhizni. SedmyechteniiapamiatiAnnyMachinskoi (St. Petersburg: SB statei, 2003), pp. 156-252.
[20] E.A. Riabinin, Novyeotkrytiia v StaroiLadoge (itogiraskopoknaZemlianomgorodishche v 1973-75 gg.), SrednevekovaiaLadoga. Novyearkheologicheskieotkrytiiaiessledovaniia (Leningrad: Nauka, 1985), p. 27-75.
[21] E.A. Riabinin, A.V. Dubashinskii, Liubshanskoegorodishche v NizhnemPovolkhove (predvaritelnoesoobshchenie), Ladogai eye sosedi v epokhusrednevekove (St. Petersburg: 2002), pp. 196-203.
[22] The article consists of a list of artifacts and their measurements.Riabinins is the only article in the entire volume that has any scientific merit.LadogaiistokiRossiiskoigosudarstvennostiikultury.Materialymezhdunarodnoinauchno-prakticheskoikonferentsy (St. Petersburg: Vesti, 2003), pp. 222-223.
[23] S. Kuzmin, Ladoga, le premier centre proto-urbaine russe, M. Kazanski, A. Nercessian, C. Zuckerman (eds.), Les centres proto-urbains russes entre Scandinavie, Byzance et Orient (Paris: P. Lethielleux, 2000), pp. 123-143.
[24] S.L. Kuzmin, Pozhary I katastrofy v Ladoge; 250 let nepreryvnoi zhizni? Ladoga pervaia stolitsa Rusi. 1250 let nepreryvnoi zhizni. Sedmye chteniia pamiati Anny Machinskoi (St. Petersburg: SB statei, 2003), pp. 45-57.
[25] S.L. Kuzmin, A.I. Volkovitskii, Ladozhskie bastiony i gorizonte B Zemlianogo gorodishche (problema khronologiia), Ladoga i Severnaia Evrazia ot Baikala do La-Mansha. Sviazuiushchie puti i organizuiushchie tsentry. 6 chteniia pamiati Anny Machinskoi (St. Petersburg: SB statei, 2002), pp. 194-198.
Hosted by uCoz